Revenge-Seeking Villains in "Othello," "The Merchant of Venice," and "The Crucible"

Summary: The villains in three works of literature-- William Shakespeare's "Othello" and "The Merchant of Venice" and Arthur Miller's "The Crucible"--are compared. Iago, Shylock and Abigail Adams are evil, but only Iago in "Othello" succeeds in his schemes.

In the two William Shakespeare plays, "Othello" and "The Merchant of Venice", and also the play by Arthur Miller titled "The Crucible" there are characters that are significantly viewed as villains. In "Othello" the character Iago is the villain. Just because he was not picked as lieutenant he used lies and deceit to trick Othello into killing his wife and himself. In Shakespeare's other work "The Merchant of Venice" the villain in the play is Shylock. His motivation for being villainous is his hatred toward Christians. He tried to use the law and a bond made by Antonio to steal a pound of his flesh, but was stopped by the fine print of the bond. The villain in Millers work Abigail was motivated by the man of her dreams to kill his wife. She planed on doing this by...